electronic resource
English language
Published Jan. 7, 2009 by Penguin USA, Inc..
From one of the world's leading thinkers and speakers on creativity and self-fulfillment, a breakthrough book about talent, passion, and achievement. The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. The Element draws on the stories of a wide range of people, from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons; from Meg Ryan to Gillian Lynne, who choreographed the Broadway productions of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera; and from writer Arianna Huffington to renowned physicist Richard Feynman and others, including business leaders and athletes. It explores the components of this new paradigm: The diversity of intelligence, the power of imagination and creativity, and the importance of commitment to our own capabilities.With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that …
From one of the world's leading thinkers and speakers on creativity and self-fulfillment, a breakthrough book about talent, passion, and achievement. The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. The Element draws on the stories of a wide range of people, from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons; from Meg Ryan to Gillian Lynne, who choreographed the Broadway productions of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera; and from writer Arianna Huffington to renowned physicist Richard Feynman and others, including business leaders and athletes. It explores the components of this new paradigm: The diversity of intelligence, the power of imagination and creativity, and the importance of commitment to our own capabilities.With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the element and those that stifle that possibility. He shows that age and occupation are no barrier, and that once we have found our path we can help others to do so as well. The Element shows the vital need to enhance creativity and innovation by thinking differently about human resources and imagination. It is also an essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities to meet the challenges of living and succeeding in the twenty-first century.
As much as I appreciate Ken Robinson's famous TED speech on education and what we could do to improve it, this book proves to be a bit too boring for my taste.
Look how they did it! Look, look!
It can just be summed down in a couple of words: Do what you like! Be good at it. Learn how to advertise yourself.
Enjoy reading.
Every creative person, teacher, and individual seeking their passion should read this book. Sir Ken Robinson takes you on a journey in which you meet amazing and famous people who all gain success by finding 'Their Element'.
Well written and witty but ultimately unsatisfying.
The book is built around anecdotes that are meant to encourage and illustrate how achievable self-fulfilment is by describing people who, against all odds, managed to find their "element", follow it and thus succeed. Instead the stories, about your everyman such as Paul McCartney, Richard Branson and Arianna Huffington, usually end up as discouraging and depressing to all those many who haven't found their element. As the book's subtitle hints at, finding your passion changes everything, but the hard part is not pursuing your passion, it's finding it and for that there is no help to be found in the book.
